Norfolk Southern in Jefferson County: What You Need to Know

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Norfolk Southern in Jefferson County What You
Need to Know
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Norfolk Southerns Intermodal Plans

• Intermodal operations transfer truck trailers on
  and off rail cars.
• Norfolk Southerns strategy is to take business
  from long-haul truckers Norfolk Southern
• The Crescent Corridor, a 2.5 billion
  intermodal line, is designed for Norfolk Southern
  to make money by moving cheap goods out of the
  South up to their markets in the Northeast
  Norfolk Southern

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Norfolk Southern Comes To Jefferson County

• June 2007 talks across East Tennessee began.
  News Sentinel, County Commission
• August 2007 5 Jefferson County officials
  signed non-disclosure agreements and began
  negotiating with Norfolk Southern. Group later
  grew to 17. County Commission
• May, 2009 Norfolk Southern plans leaked to the
  public when their agents began trying to buy
  options on local farms and homes. Metro Pulse

1. Allen Palmieri, County Mayor 2. Phil
Kindred, Chair of County Commission 3. Don
Cason, Executive Director of Chamber 4. Eli
Matijevich, President of Chamber 5. Ed
Stiner, Industrial Board
To date, the railroad and all officials involved
refuse to share this non-disclosure agreement or
any notes regarding their meetings. What are
they hiding?
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Jefferson County Tomorrow is a citizens group
dedicated to protecting Jefferson County,
Tennessee as a great place to live and
work. Following are 10 reasons we are strongly
opposed to Norfolk Southerns plans.
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1. This is a lousy plan for growing good jobs in
Jefferson County

• Railroads have lost over 1 million jobs in a
  steady trend since the 1950s. Association of
  American Railroads
• Railroad employment is expected to drop another
  16 over the 06-16 time period. US Bureau of
  Labor Statistics
• Norfolk Southern projects its rail yard may
  someday employ up to 77 temporary contract
  workers all without normal railroad wages or
  benefits.

Jefferson County is chasing a dying industry.
Meanwhile, the rest of the state is growing green
jobs at 18 per year, the third highest rate in
the nation! Pew Foundation
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2. Using UTs research methods, Jefferson County
jobs would be expected to more than double if the
rail yard were located in Hamblen County instead
of in New Market.
Projected distribution of 1800 regional jobs, if
rail yard were located
in Jefferson County
. . . in Hamblen County
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3. Jefferson County is already listed as a
Federal non-attainment area due to its
dangerously poor air quality.
This rail yard and freight terminal would
concentrate thousands of additional trucks and
hundreds of locomotives in one of the worst
polluted counties in the state.
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Just how bad is the air quality threat anyway?

• Did you know that Tennessee is regularly referred
  to as the asthma capital of the world?
• Did you know that Jefferson Countys air quality
  is considered the ninth worst in the state?
• Did you know that the EPA has already fined
  Jefferson County for its dangerous air quality?
• Did you know that railroads are allowed to use a
  dirtier fuel than the rest of us are allowed?
• Did you know that locomotives in a yard produce
  33 tons of nitrogen oxide and 1 ton of soot daily?

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4. Traffic!

• Norfolk Southern says its rail yard alone will
  increase local truck traffic
• 25 in Phase 1
• 57 in Phase 2
• No projections for Phase 3

Total truck traffic for the rail road plus the
freight yards and warehouses in the logistics
park could easily triple current levels.
The county has yet to estimate cost to improve
roads for accommodating increased traffic.
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5. Upwind of an elementary school is no place to
locate 1000 acres of rail yard and freight
terminals.
We would never locate our school next to this, so
what gives them the right to locate this next to
our school?
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Risks of Children Nearby Nearly 500 railway
trespassers are killed annually Norfolk
Southern alone averages about one trespasser
death per week. Federal Railway Administration

Practically speaking, a rail yard cannot be
fenced. Norfolk Southern has suggested we build
an earthen berm around our school!!!
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5. Intermodal Terminals destroy huge tracts of
land
Norfolk Southern wants a yard three miles long
on farmland west of New Market, but
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they also hope to profit from warehouses and
storage facilities surrounding the rail yard to
form a logistics park of more than 1,000 acres.
Our county tax dollars not Norfolk Southern
shareholders would build the park.
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6. Whatever happened to Smart Growth?
Jefferson County is losing its prime productive
agricultural land to development. Down from
172,135 acres in 1940, we have only 101,585 acres
left of this critical resource. What will the
next 60 years bring?
America loses 1.2 million acres of her farmland
EVERY YEAR. Yet, population continues to grow
when farmland is gone, who will feed the nation?
No Farms No Food
Jefferson County Agricultural Land in Acres
USDA / Census of Agriculture
American Farmland Trust
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Maybe we were wrong, but we thought the land was
already productively developed !?!
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7. The New Market site would require an
interstate connector 10-12 miles long somewhere
across Rocky Valley and Bays Mountain.
This road will cost more than 25 million per
mile and require hundreds of acres of property to
be condemned through eminent domain.
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Lets Compare Sites in New Market versus Hamblen
County
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8. County leaders are repeating a pattern that
is failing us.
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9. Our leaders using bad government to force a
bad deal on the county

• Property Rights Encouraging a project that, in
  total, will ultimately result in hundreds of
  acres of home and farmland condemned through
  eminent domain
• Closed Government Signed agreement to work in
  secret and wouldnt admit to dealings with
  Norfolk Southern even after NS had started trying
  to buy land.
• Lack of Environmental Stewardship Recruiting
  heavy polluter to an area already out of federal
  compliance for its poor air quality
• Failing to Grow Good Jobs Missing the green
  jobs boom enjoyed by rest of state
• Head in the Sand Refusing to admit that there
  might be any negatives associated with something
  this big and permanent
• Refusing Community Input Refusing to dialogue
  with community on possible routes for interstate
  connector
• Poor Costs Control Making decisions on the
  basis of costs they admit are unknown
• Anti-Education Buckling under to heavy industry
  rather than protecting school childrens need to
  work in a safe environment conducive to learning

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10. Norfolk Southern has regularly been a blight
on neighborhoods that allowed them in. We just
dont trust them.
Their John Sevier yard (left) and their infamous
Coster Shop yard (right) offer lessons we all
need to learn.
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We just dont trust them
They continue featuring the Inland Port at Front
Royal, VA (located near a golf course) as an
example of what their intermodal facilities look
like But, Norfolk Southern doesnt own the
Front Royal yard!
Harrisburg, PA Intermodal rail yard actually
owned by Norfolk Southern. No wonder they
feature someone elses!!!
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We just dont trust them In 2005, a Norfolk
Southern accident killed 9 and helped bankrupt a
business, costing 4,000 jobs. Though
settlement costs are expected to be hundreds of
millions of dollars, Norfolk Southern has still
not settled claims from the 2005 spill.
Wikipedia
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We just dont trust them
At their July 2 public information meeting,
Norfolk Southern executives compared the noise
from one of their intermodal terminals to that of
a dishwasher... Seriously! We couldnt make
this stuff up!
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We just dont trust them
At their July 2 public information meeting,
Norfolk Southern executives repeatedly stressed
we had nothing to fear from hazardous materials
because those were never handled by their
intermodal trains these pictures of intermodal
tank cars labeled for hazardous chemicals were
taken August 2, 2009, in New Market.
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Our Recommendations

• Every citizen should study our information, share
  it with others, and contact officials listed on
  our flyers
• County and state leaders should insist Norfolk
  Southern limit their search to sites that are
• Not already facing severe air quality issues
• Brownfield industrial sites rather than green
  space
• Located near interstates
• Not threats to schoolchildren

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Benefits of JCT Recommendations

• Creates more jobs in Jefferson County
• Saves productive farmland by using brownfields
• Saves 300 million of taxpayer money
• Avoids need for long interstate connector
• Avoids condemning countless farms and homes
• Avoids placing school children at risk
• Avoids worsening air pollution in a county
  already failing to meet federal standards